On a party line vote last week, the state Senate and then the Assembly barely approved a bill that threatens the integrity of our judicial system and demeans the idea of American citizenship. AB 1401 will allow alien residents of California to sit on juries trying American citizens. Its ultimate goal may be to extend voting rights to more than 2 million undocumented immigrants residing in this state.

If signed by the governor, the requirement that only citizens of the United States may sit on juries will be loosened to include “lawful permanent immigrants.” The original version of the bill read “lawfully present immigrants” but was amended to its current wording in an unsuccessful effort to meet objections critics had raised. The current wording does not respond to any of the opposition’s objections.

Consider the implications should the governor sign this bill. More than 3 million aliens legally in the state would become eligible for jury duty. Many of them have lived in this country for decades without seeking citizenship. Charlie Chaplin remained a British citizen for four decades, living in California most of that time. He never sought American citizenship, but under this bill he could have served on your jury.

In addition to those legal resident aliens, another 2 million illegal residents are likely to be eligible for jury duty in the near future. One probable result of the current negotiations in Congress over the future of undocumented immigrants is passage of a bill that will grant them legal status but not citizenship. California’s undocumented immigrants, already defined as “immigrants” in official documents, would become “lawful permanent immigrants” and immediately eligible for jury service under AB 1401.

This nation, we are frequently reminded, was built by immigrants. Most of those immigrants became American citizens, but to get that honor they prepared themselves by learning English, studying American government, and demonstrating their assimilation into American society. Many immigrants chose, as Chaplin did, to remain aloof from Americanization by maintaining their foreign allegiance and, in many cases, their foreign language. They never assimilated.

AB 1401 opens the jury box door to millions of Californians who aren’t prepared to sit there. Their questionable fluency with the English language may be enough to barely meet that requirement for jurors, but it will leave doubt as to the fairness and accuracy of the verdict. The culture of their native homeland may also differ significantly from American standards — on the rights of women, for example — and that could affect a verdict.

When native-born American citizens are called for their first service on a jury, they have lived in this country for nearly two decades at least and have studied American government in school for years. But AB 1401 implies none of that is necessary to reach a just decision in trials.

AB 1401 could just be the first step to a larger goal. The next bill may allow “lawful permanent immigrants” to vote in California’s elections. That possibility is supported by a companion bill, also on the governor’s desk, that would allow noncitizens to serve as poll workers during elections.

Jury service and election workers today, voters tomorrow. One Democrat’s argument for the jury service bill is that if they can serve in the armed forces they ought to be eligible to serve on juries. The ultimate destination of that argument is, of course, the right to vote. And is there any doubt that the Democrats would be the beneficiary of most of those new voters?

If the governor rises above party and does his duty, he will veto AB 1401. Even a large number of Assembly Democrats couldn’t stomach this bill, abstaining on the final roll call. The bill passed by a single vote. The governor, however, must show more courage than those abstaining Democrats. He must veto AB 1401.

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